Why come to slaka

This is a guidebook to a mysteriously mobile piece of Europe, Slaka! Slaka was used as the backdrop to the author's Rates of Exchange and here he confirms that the place is still the same - captivating, infuriating, bureaucratic, anarchic, comic and sinister. Get A Copy. Paperback , 96 pages. Published February 1st by Penguin Books first published November 5th More Details Original Title.

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Add this book to your favorite list ». Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of Why Come to Slaka? Sep 05, Zuberino rated it liked it Shelves: yugoslavia , communism , satire , parody , travel , slavs , east-europe , iron-curtain , humour , non-fiction. So back in the early s, Malcolm Bradbury wrote a humorous novel called Rates of Exchange about the travels of an English academic in an imaginary Soviet-bloc country called Slaka.

Which I swear from the name appeared to me to be Albania or Yugoslavia, but which other people suggest could be Romania or Bulgaria or Czechoslovakia No matter. Three years later, Bradbury took his conceit to the next level and concocted this slim volume - a fictional travel guide to his fictional country.

The So back in the early s, Malcolm Bradbury wrote a humorous novel called Rates of Exchange about the travels of an English academic in an imaginary Soviet-bloc country called Slaka. This is satire that is mostly gentle and affectionate, though occasionally rather sharp.

Bradbury has managed to capture the absurdist funhouse quality of life in a communist East European country, as refracted through an institutional publication which is meant to promote and enthuse but which nevertheless dismays as much as it amuses the reader. There is garbled English on every page thanks to the indefatigable Dr F Plitplov , while the lists of travel phrases are an exercise in sustained anarchy.

Those are the best bits of the book. Bradbury also gives every sign of having grappled with the Slavic languages, although in truth he seems to have fared rather better than me in this regard Either way, an amusing way to waste an afternoon.

Sep 06, Kevin Warne rated it liked it. I picked up this book by chance at a book store that was going out of business. It's a satirical guidebook to a fictional Eastern European communist country called Slaka. It's a very quick read and the same kinds of jokes about inefficient bureaucracy and police control over and over again.

Depsite that, it feels familiar to anyone who has ever done a lot of traveling and found themselves in places that were equally confusing, frustrating and oddly charming in all their chaos. The guidebook to end - with any luck - all guidebooks. Sign up here. Ready for your next read? Why Come to Slaka? He was awarded a knighthood in for services to literature and died later the same year. Sku NPB ISBN 13 ISBN 10 Title Why Come to Slaka? Author Malcolm Bradbury. Condition New.

Binding type Paperback. Publisher Pan Macmillan. Year published Number of pages Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. Note This is a new book - be the first to read this copy.